An IPS officer of the 1986 batch, Bijay Kumar Sharma has served as the Superintendent of Police in Sundargarh, Phulbani and Sambalpur districts and Commissioner of Police of Twin City Bhubaneswar-Cuttack. He climbed the hierarchical ladder by becoming the IG Crime, preceded by his stint as SP and DIG in CBI, New Delhi. Currently, he is stationed as the Additional Director General of Crime Branch for the last three and a half years. Possessed with an aquiline nose with an overwhelming sense of smelling the crime, this top cop keeps a nelson eye over the overall crime scenario of the State for bringing the rate of crimes down every passing day, thereby boosting the morale of the citizens. A workaholic by nature, Sharma rises with the lark and works till it is dark for maintaining a strict surveillance over the portentous criminal rendezvous and, at times, sneaks out of his busy schedule to play billiards, golf and piano and to read books of much value and interest to keep his stress and strain at bay. In an interview to The Pioneer, Sharma spoke to Sugyan Choudhury from the Crime Branch Headquarters at Cuttack.
Whenever there is a crime, people demand either a CBI inquiry or a Crime Branch (CB) investigation. Do you believe that the CB has lived up to the people’s expectationsIJ
The Crime Branch as an organisation has had its existence over the last 60 to 80 years. It has an established tradition as a specialised agency to deal with complicated crime investigations only. Sometimes, we do not get crimes detected at the district level owing to the complicated nature of the case and because of the multifarious engagements of the district police. Therefore, we deal with those cases exclusively and focus on the areas of particular crimes till they get detected. We have our supporting units like cyber crime investigations units and other units proficient in dealing with the same. People always demand for Crime Branch investigation. Sometimes, they are not satisfied with our investigation, but most often they demand that the cases be transferred to the Crime Branch which is a proof that we have lived up to the satisfaction of the people. Whenever a case comes to us, we deal it with most sincerely and diligently.
What are the plans on the anvil to bring the crimes rates downIJ
look, prevention and detection of crime is the primary task of the district police. The local police stations are the nodal agencies to deal with detection and prevention of crime under the supervision of the district Superintendent of Police. Ours is a kind of satellite supervision work. We have to devise ways, and we have to tell them what to do and how to prevent crimes. For example, we have to point them out emerging new areas of crimes like cyber crimes, extortion of money by mafias, stealing of trucks or trucks laden with goods on the highways and similar such areas of crimes and guide them how to carry out their investigations for nabbing the criminal gangs. Hence, we are dealing on the prevention part of it rather than on the detection.
Do you believe that in the new emerging area of cyber crime, you have enough skilled persons to deal with the issuesIJ
Cyber crime is bound to increase. Every year, it is increasing exponentially. Odisha has become a technical hub, and Bhubaneswar has emerged as a software destination. More and more people have become techno-savvy. We now have only one police station in the State to deal with cyber crimes and that is located here in this Crime Branch building in Cuttack. We are now trying to open another police station in Bhubaneswar. Besides, we have sent proposals to the Government for opening three more police stations, one each at Brahmapur, Sambalpur and Rourkela. We need adequate capacity building of the police to deal with the increasing cyber crimes. The available policemen proficient in dealing with cyber crimes, though capable, are limited. We have sent them for training in Kerala, and they are also getting technical assistance from other technical institutes. But what we want today is an increasing number of trained police personnel proficient in dealing with cyber crimes and to increase the number of police stations to deal with such crimes.
It is observed that inordinate delays are caused in the submission of final investigation reports by the CB. Do you agreeIJ
You know for sure that the cases coming to the Crime Branch for investigations are complicated in nature. Sometimes, we need inter-State and international investigations when other countries’ investigations are required. Our letter rogatories are pending at least in seven countries by now including France and Singapore. For example, you know regarding the sinking of the ship Black Rose at Paradip. We have issued a letter rogatory to Singapore. Repeated correspondence is going on between us and the Attorney General office of Singapore. They are seeking queries, and we are furnishing replies. That obviously takes time. In the same way, we have to obtain reports in complicated cases from laboratories and technical institutes located outside the State. You will be happy to know that we are disposing of more number of cases in a year than what have been registered. For example, fifty cases are registered in a year, but we are disposing of hundred cases. In other words, along with the current cases, we are disposing of another fifty cases of the past, thereby diffusing the backlog. This way, we are trying to clear the deck to enable us to render prompt and quick dispensation of new cases.
It is alleged that due to incompetent, inexperienced Government prosecutors, a large number of criminals are going scot-free. What are you going to do to weed out such a syndromeIJ
This allegation is true to a large extent. We have two types of prosecutors, cadre prosecutors and term prosecutors. The cadre prosecutors are recruited, appointed and promoted. The term prosecutors are appointed for a limited period of time and then their appointments are terminated. In terms of performance, the cadre prosecutors are doing very well. We have our four numbers of own in-house prosecutors and all of them are doing very well. You will be happy to know the Government is amending cadre prosecution rules so that more people could be recruited to the cadre and their performance would be much better. That is what we hope for the future.
Could you please tell about the proportion of the police personnel to the massesIJ What are the plans to bridge the gap, if anyIJ
look, the national average of policemen is something like 220 per one lakh of population. But here in our State, we are much below the national average. We have more number of armed police personnel and battalions to take on the Maoists, but we have not adequate number of policemen to deal with civilian crimes or with the civil population. I am not concerned with the recruitment of manpower, but I am sure the office of the Director General of Police is rightly contemplating in this regard to increase the number of police personnel and for the capacity building of the civil police.
The community is seriously concerned over the increasing rate of crimes. A former DGP once remarked that Bhubaneswar has become the crime capital of India. What’s your responseIJ
Bhubaneswar is a burgeoning city. Its population is increasing every day. The influx of people coming to it from nearby areas is amounting to some few lakhs. The migration of people to Bhubaneswar owing to rapid urbanisation is huge. Students from all States are rushing here for their education. Crime is bound to increase in such a situation. But I am sure the Commissionerate Police of Bhubaneswar is equally rising to the occasion with innovative steps to contain and control the crime scenario.